Well, it’s pretty much the same as over here to be honest. But check out a few minor observations I made when I was compensating the lack of Unigolftour tourneys in the Netherlands with playing a pretty weird scramble in Rotterdam.

The RSGA TriFinance Open (that’s Rotterdamse Studenten Golf Vereniging plus the title sponsor) took place at the Golf & Country Club Capelle aan den IJssel on Saturday, September 13, 2014. Yeah, that was the day right after the Koblenz Campus Classics. So fresh off a very sweet Netto victory at the Jakobsberg and together with my instantly beloved goldbear trophy plus a retail package of Haribo in the boot I arrived close to Rotterdam. Yeah, and guess how things kicked off.

With a guy on a bike and his bag on the back. Too much of a cliché you think? Well, to go a step further, have you noticed the canal on the right? Fun thing is, that’s not a cliché. That’s Emiel (the guy, not the canal), and I was actually playing in the same group with him. He’s active in the RSGV and – just as all the people I would meet that day – an awesome guy.

Not much to say about the changing room. It’s, yeah, just a regular changing room. Same as here. So if you wonder if they have the same kind of changing rooms in the Netherlands – well, in Rotterdam they do.

Let’s talk about language for a moment, because it’s awesome. Dutch is awesome. The weird thing is that you can absolutely read it (just cross off all double letters, BOOM, there’s your word), but once they start speaking this thing, you’re just utterly lost. However, in my opinion it’s one of the most beautiful sounding languages out there. Unlike German, which originates pretty much in the center of your body (feel tummy and chest while you’re talking), Dutch comes more from the mouth. Sounds funny for a language, but you’ll hear what I mean. It therefore operates a higher frequency range which makes it sound friendlier to begin with. Go for Low German to get a rough idea how vowels and consonants are combined and sprinkle it with a crackling noise every half second, there’s Dutch for you. As a bonus with student golfers, they’ll happily explain everything they just said for you in English if they just catch a hint of a question mark in your face while they speak and you listen. I said it. It’s awesome.

My choice of pants was much appreciated, but I somehow spoiled the look with that flag on my shoes. By the way, Niet Storen is not the name of a professional.

So here’s where it all went horribly wrong. This is the table where you hand in your score card. It’s also the table where you have to gamble with the points you’ve made on three holes during the tourney. I think it was holes 4, 17 and a third one. That way you could either improve or ruin your score. And yes, the prizes were awarded for the scores after gambling took place. I absolutely loved it. Needless to say that this picture was taken the very moment when Thomas lost everything we worked so fucking hard for on the course. I’m sure I could have done better, but I guess that’s easy to say when you don’t know the rules.

(Thomas, massive thanks for a spectacular day out there.)

I’ve already mentioned the basic translation rule, so you know by now that this is the central station. We crossed it later that day to come out at the other side and find all the players…

(Bastiaan, massive thanks for hosting me. All, massive thanks for such a lekker time with you.)

So let me leave you with my very personal summary of what to expect when going to the Netherlands to play some student golf. It’s basically three major points.

1. It’s awesome.
2. It’s awesome.3. It’s fucking awesome!

Oh, and I need to add a very important general tip when it comes to student golf tourneys in the Netherlands, may that be Rotterdam, Nijmegen, Amsterdam or whatever there is or isn’t on the tour. Ready? Okay, here comes the tip that I leave you with. Here it is. Now. Here’s the tip.